So, I finally picked out and bought a laptop. I ended up going with a ThinkPad T60, mostly because I know someone who was able to get me an employee discount, and for the 'can withstand nuclear apocalypse' factor the ThinkPads have. The specs:
-1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor
-15" screen
-1GB RAM
-100 GB harddrive
-DVD-Recordable optical drive

...And a bunch of other stuff that comes standared, like an integrated fingerprint reader, and wireless card, but those are the big shiny ones. Final cost was just over thirteen hundred US, which is pretty sweet. It's coming with XP Home to save some money, but I'm probably going to install Pro myself.